Garden's first colors

Purple, White, and Red-

                    Last week some volunteer radish appeared much to my surprise.  I didn't even have radish in the garden last year!  Today was a sunny 80 degrees.  Once I arrived home from work I rushed to my garden to see how all of my plant babies grew in this beautiful weather.  I was very surprised to see that one of the largest cabbage now has a purple tint on the tiny head.  One of the tallest sugar snap peas had a beautiful flower.  One whole row of pole beans shot up through the dark dirt!  I also harvested some of my salad bowl lettuce for dinner tonight.  Nothing hits the spot quite like tuna salad rolls with fresh lettuce.

Pole Beans

Sugar Snap Pea Flower

I also have many flowers on my tomato plants.  Last year I was told by a friend to cut off the early flowers until the plant is much larger.  I decided to let the flowers be and to only trim certain stems.  The next few weeks will keep me very busy.  Tomorrow I need to tend to my cucumbers. 

My poor tomatoes of year's past

Last year my tomatoes suffered crop failure.  By the middle of July all of my tomatoes looked like palm trees( instead of treating the tomatoes I waited too long to treat my plants and I only cut off the leaves as they became infected)

This pictures is the start of Early Blight

I found an interesting article here about the treatment and prevention of Early Blight
Early Blight of Tomatoes . There are millions of websites that will provide you with information but I liked that from the University of Maine because it is very straightforward and also gives simple steps for prevention.

This year we had planned on redoing our raised beds because we thought the soil was the cause of my crop failure.  We ultimately chose to keep the beds in the same location this year, use containers for my tomatoes and then next year we will assess and possibly create new raised beds.  Instead of starting my seeds inside this year I bought small plants.  This winter was very long and we had snow covering our beds until April (I live in New England).  I started my plants at the middle of May and many people on my local gardening sites actually thought it was too soon. Being in the second week of June I can't believe how cold the weather has been on some nights. 

Here is a picture from May 16th.  My basil ultimately didn't make it through the first few cold nights so I have since replanted( I have 7 plants so hopefully I will be rockin' the pesto this summer!).  As I spoke about earlier the weather has been so up and down.  We have had very few sunny days and more cloudy, overcast and cold days.  Today was actually a beautiful day in the low 80s and I was able to spend a good amount of time weeding.

I took this picture tonight after I finished watering.  We went out for ice cream so I didn't have a chance to water during daylight hours.  I strapped on my headlamp and headed into the mosquito filled night  to water my plant babies!  I have always watered my plant babies at night but I have recently read a few gardeners thoughts on watering in the morning.  My thinking has always been that at night the water is able to sink into the soil so the roots can absorb the water.  I would love to read your comments?  Morning or night watering??!!

Wow, Three Years

Well three years has passed since I last wrote on my blog.  It seems like time is moving in fast forward.  In June 2013 I had my daughter and it was very tough for me to stay up on my garden never mind my blog.  I hope to have a very active blog and share some of my knowledge of gardening and of course learn as much as I can from my friends!!